An ever-increasing reliance on information and the computing systems that produce, process, distribute, and maintain such information in its various forms, continues to put great demands on techniques for providing up-to-date information about available computing resources to a user. As the number of computing resources (e.g., desktop PCs, notebook PCs, server-class PCs and workstations, as well as attached storage and memory resources) increases in an enterprise, an increasing amount of system administration resources have to be expended in order to track those computing resources. Information related to the hardware installed on the various computing resources, as well as installed software, is highly desirable but also difficult to track in a fluid environment.
One method of tracking inventory information related to available computing resources includes sending system management employees to each available computing resource and manually taking an inventory of both the hardware and software installed. However, as the number of computing resources increases and as their geographical locations disburse, such manual inventory taking can expend a significant amount of system management resources in both time and money.
Alternatively, automated inventory systems can be used to scan each computing resource in a network and provide information related to installed hardware and software to a centralized inventory server. Typically, such automated systems can report detailed information over the network about each hardware and software item found on a computing node. But, as the number of computing resources increases in the enterprise network, the network traffic generated by transmitting detailed information about each inventoried item on each computing resource can consume a significant amount of network bandwidth and server resources (e.g., CPU, memory, disk space, and the like). This consumption of available network bandwidth can adversely impact the utility of the network for business-related computing needs.
It is therefore desirable to provide an automated computer resource inventory system that minimizes the amount of network bandwidth consumed by transmitting inventory information to an inventory repository. By decreasing such network traffic, more frequent inventory scanning can be taken of an enterprise's computing resources, thereby providing a more accurate picture of available computing resources.